Graham says you know good hackers from working with them.

I'm lucky to have experienced that at work a few times, and it is really cool to have, in the next room, someone who is both a fantastic programmer, a Linux whiz, knows C++ to the core while still doing stuff in scripting languages, gets things done, is meticulous and can write to tell others about what he does.

Poeple like that are productive by themselves, but more importantly they make the entire team more productive by being around and making big problems small and show-stoppers go away so we less talented hang-arounds can continue working, hopefully learning something in the process.

If you can, make sure you're located within ear shot of a person like this, to pick up on all the small everyday things.

/J